Ukip: BBC should be pared 'to the bone'

Nigel Farage has said the BBC budget would be "cut back to the bone" and the TV licence fee slashed by two thirds if Ukip had its way.

If enacted, the proposal would see the cost of an annual TV licence cut from £145.50 to just £48.15.

The Ukip leader made the statement at a rally in Rochester, where Tory-turned-Ukip MP Mark Reckless is seeking re-election.

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Farage said the BBC should not be privatised but retained as a public service broadcaster, the Daily Telegraph reports. "I would like to see the BBC cut back to the bone to be purely a public service broadcaster with its international reach and I think it could do that with a licence fee that is a third of what it currently is," he said

He said the BBC did not need to involve itself in entertainment and sport, "given the whole world has changed with cable television and satellite television", but he said that we shouldn't completely underestimate the importance of the BBC. The broadcaster is "one of the greatest global brands this country possesses and it represents something for many, many parts of the world", he said.

The BBC reports that Ukip had already committed to reviewing the licence fee, which is up for renewal next year, but this was the first time the leader had put a figure on it.

The proposal comes after Farage accused the BBC of selecting a "left-wing" audience for last week's TV debate between him and the leaders of Labour, the SNP, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru.

Farage extended these accusations in a comment piece in the Mail on Sunday, in which he described the debate audience as "far from the 'balanced' and 'representative' sample of people that we had been promised by the event organisers, the BBC".

More broadly, he accused the corporation of "talking to itself, with news coverage and TV programmes that suit the tastes of its six-figure-salary directors and their mates in Islington".

Ukip is not the only party with plans for the BBC. While the Conservatives have said they would maintain a freeze on the licence fee, the Green Party wants to abolish it and fund the BBC through general taxation. The SNP says it wants a "fairer share" of the licence fee for BBC Scotland.

The current Royal Charter, which governs the BBC and guarantees its independence, expires at the end of 2016.